Man killed in motorcycle crash in S. Toledo

Police say the Toledo man who was killed when the motorcycle he was driving crashed at South Byrne Road and Heatherdowns Boulevard in South Toledo early today was traveling at a high rate of speed while driving in front an officer.

Zachary DeLauter, 22, was pronounced dead at the scene at 12:08 a.m., Toledo police said. Mr. DeLauter wore a helmet, according to police.

Mr. DeLauter was driving south on South Byrne at a high rate of speed just after midnight when the motorcycle crossed Heatherdowns and drove off the right side of the road, throwing him to the ground, police said.

In a report issued today, police said that Sgt. T.G. LaForge was on patrol at 12:02 a.m. when he spotted two motorcycles traveling south at a high rate of speed on North Byrne Road near Nebraska Avenue. Sergeant LaForge then followed the motorcycles and was behind them when they stopped for a red light at Byrne and Hill Avenue, police said.

Once the light turned green, the motorcycles allegedly fled at "an extremely high rate of speed," at which time a police broadcast was made, according to the report. The sergeant continued to follow the motorcyclists and again caught up with them at a red light at South Byrne and Airport Highway, police said.

When that light turned green, the sergeant activated his police cruiser overhead lights to try to get the motorcyclists to pull over, according to the report.

"The motorcycles again fled at an extremely high rate of speed and I turned off my overhead lights and broadcast the plate of one of the vehicles," the sergeant wrote in the report. "At Byrne and Heatherdowns, I observed one motorcycle had crashed in the parking lot of the old Frisch's Big Boy."